Replenishing the Vinyl

A couple of months ago, I picked up a couple of albums by the now late, always great, Glen Campbell.

One claimed to be “Wichita Lineman”, but isn’t; it’s a cash-in compilation album which has it’s moments, obviously.

The other is his 1977 album “Southern Nights”, the title track written by Allen Toussaint, an artist I knew of but nothing by until I went to see Billy Bragg and Joe Henry last year, and Henry waxed lyrical about him and performed one of his songs (“Freedom of the Stallion”, in case you’re interested). I’m currently investigating his rather large back catalogue.

But I digress: “Southern Nights” may not be one of his better known records, but the title track was a US #1 – his last, I believe – and has some other gems on it; a couple of songs written by Jimmy Webb (of course), a Neil Diamond cover and a certain Brian Wilson composition which will be familiar to you all, particularly if you’ve cast an eye over this week’s returned series The Chain.

3 thoughts on “Replenishing the Vinyl”

I urge you to check out Allen Toussaint’s “Southern Nights” album. Some great songs, one of which – “What do you want the girl to do” – was covered by Lowell George and Bonnie Raitt. The man wrote some great songs – starting in the 1960’s with “Pain In My Heart” by Otis Redding, “Ride Your Pony”, “Get Out of My Life, Woman” and many others by Lee Dorsey. He wrote “Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues)”, the best version of which was sung by Scotland’s own soul man, Frankie Miller and “Shoorah! Shoorah!” by Betty Wright. Also have a listen to Lee Dorsey’s 1970 album “Yes We Can”, which Toussaint produced and wrote most of the tracks.